Intro

The goal of this story is to work on an incompatibility matrix of network devices (mainly switches) making Deco routers unhappy.

If such list already exist, please link it below this article.

Main reason for that is quite common problem of people experiencing various stability issues with Deco when some incompatible switch is connected to the infrastructure.

Link reference:

• https://community.tp-link.com/en/home/forum/topic/98898 ( How to set up Ethernet Backhaul with your Deco devices )
• https://community.tp-link.com/en/home/forum/topic/104523 ( Problem: Random Diconnecting Ethernet Devices. )

My case: Deco M4R v1 running 1.0.6 (2018) firmware upgraded later to 1.1.0 (2019). System setup in few minutes, flawlessly working (seems like). Next day firmware upgrade and after that system became unstable, Deco units randomly out of order (red light), connected devices disconnecting or cannot connect anymore. I had one spare Deco with older firmware and tried to plugged it in instead of the upgraded one. No change in behaviour. Than I read https://community.tp-link.com/en/home/forum/topic/98898 ( How to set up Ethernet Backhaul with your Deco devices ) and realized I have D-Link switch in my infra. Switch diconnected from the infra, Deco system connected to the main router (Huawei) and voila - all problems are gone. With new and also with old firmware.

Incompatibility matrix